In early May 2016, Ms. Sudha Murali, the former child protection specialist at UNICEF (Uganda Country Office) retired from Service. Ms. Murali has been an ardent champion of children’s rights and was at the foreforent of implementing the Justice for Children Program (J4C) in partnership with the Justice, Law and Order Sector. Edgar Kuhimbisa and Tina Parbhakar sat down with Sudha for an exclusive interview regarding her stellar career and the future of justice for children in Uganda.

What led to your interest in child protection work and working with UNICEF? How would you describe yourself and your role on the J4C program?

My background and interest in social work and human rights was in a way ingrained as I had completed my masters in Sociology and had been inspired by my two my teachers who were brilliant and incisive in encouraging students to go beyond the syllabi and get involved. I joined a study circle on women’s studies during my Masters and the discrimination of gender, social stratification and class made me conscious of my own relatively privileged background. My parents were also a strong influence with their values and learning, especially my mother who was a post graduate in Economics as early as 1935 when most women globally did not have equal opportunities!

I started working with fishermen communities and youth on survival issues along the coast of southern India strengthening community disaster preparedness including awareness on alternatives to pesticides which was poisoning the environment and driving the farmers to indebtedness and suicides.

I also saw that although women did most of the work in agriculture they were not recognized as farmers in their own right and had little or no access to credit. They were not paid minimum wages and were often discriminated although they did most of the same tasks as men did and if they were women from the lower castes in India they were socially discriminated and exploited.

I joined an organization that was empowering Dalit (the lowest caste in India) to upgrade their agricultural skills, be aware of their rights and speak up to participate in the development process.

I think this has been one of the high points in my life as I learnt so much from community women, their struggles to raise their families, cope with migration of husbands in search of work, wanting a better life for their children and balancing endless demands from the families who took all what they did for granted ..

It was amazing to see the solidarity emerge and as the women’s groups collectively took up dry land farming and negotiating for better conditions, access to bank credit, training and upgrading technical skills that helped them to evolve as managers and not just landless labourers by the system .. Seeing them emerge as confident women and address discrimination was the biggest learning experience for me…. .

Robert Chambers the pioneer of Participatory Rural appraisal (PRA ) as it was called then came to India and his first PRA was in one of the villages where we had started interventions.I met Robert Chambers at IDS UK after 20 years and we relived the excitement of that exercise!

At this point of time UNICEF had asked us to undertake a PRA on assessment of education needs for children and the social factors that governed learning including the child labour issue and the caste dimension. It seemed to make sense to then join UNICEF which offered a vision of the CRC and a canvas that was large enough to influence systems. I also had the advantage of knowing the impact of systems first hand at the actual user level and was able to advocate on the specifics that the system needed to change. In the meantime thanks to a recommendation by one of India’s leading jurists Justice Krishna Iyer I had a chance to go to the Institute of social Studies at the Hague and got a teaching certificate in Law social justice and Human rights. I also completed my post-graduation diploma in Human rights .

My work on child protection has spanned almost 23 years in UNICEF and working on having an integrated institutionalized approach to addressing issues than ad hoc solutions which were temporary and fizzled out once the funds ran out. Development of legislative standards, capacity building, budget provision, human resources planning, monitoring mechanisms are key to systems strengthening.

I was lucky to work with a great network of people across the country, people who shared knowledge information and put the issue above individual credit and focus….

UNICEF backed me completely although there were no tried and tested remedies at that point in time. .. The work on community based prevention of trafficking with coordination from police, courts, ministries of women and child development, income generation were held up as Best Practices internationally at the World Congress in Brazil.

My interest in child justice issues stemmed from the fact that while reviewing legislation on trafficking, child labour, children in detention across south and south east Asia the lack of child specific standards were a big challenge.. The critical component of child sensitive justice standards was missing and most people looked at children as ‘mini adults”.

The awareness on the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the obligations to domesticate national legislation, the allocation of resources both human and financial were the key components that UNICEF focused on.

Coming to Uganda in April 2012 I was very excited and also impressed with the conceptual clarity on many child protection issues as well as the JLOS sector approach which is indeed a pioneering step well appreciated both in Africa and beyond .What was a challenge was the gap between conceptual clarity and implementation! The J4C intervention was launched by JLOS in partnership the Centre for justice studies and innovations in May 2012. I was lucky to have the privilege of seeing the programme evolve and integrate into the key institutions like judiciary, prosecution, police and probation which is indeed very satisfying!

When did you start working in Uganda and do you remember how your first week went? What past experiences supported or informed your work on child justice in Uganda?

My first week was very interesting and informative. I was at the Commonwealth Judges Conference which Uganda was hosting along with the Chief of Child Protection and UNICEF was asked to make a presentation on Justice For children. I recall working very hard on the presentation!! This was followed by my attending the JLOS Programme review at Munyono. I was feeling quite lost as I hardly knew anybody then. Little did I anticipate that I would leave Uganda as part of the JLOS family! My work with law enforcement, legislative standards coupled with a familiarity of how systems work as well as my training and background in Human Rights helped me to navigate the issues on Justice for children in Uganda relatively quickly as I had worked with governments in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka ) and partly in Thailand as a NGO and understood their strength as well as their complexity well . I also strongly believe that the best experience and knowledge is within the system. The only thing is we need to tap it !

What are the similarities and differences between Uganda and other contexts where you have worked?

Systems are pretty much similar, and Commonwealth countries have basically similar legislative and administrative structures. The biggest challenges across countries is to make the governments see the value in investing in children and child justice issues neither trivializing nor dramatizing them. Governments have many constituencies to answer to and making Children visible on their agenda is not always easy .Coordination among institutions, understanding that an integrated approach does not undermine individual institutions and actually optimizes results are the common thread across .

In Uganda I was impressed by the accessibility and the involvement decision makers whether at High court, Uganda Police, DPP, Gender-, JLOS Secretariat the openness with which we were able to discuss relatively sensitive issues of defilement, children in detention, backlog of cases, was very encouraging.

In your view what are the three main successes of the J4C programme?

It is difficult to really call anything a success so soon in terms of institution building! In my view the acceptance and integration of the Justice For children issue into the mainstream justice system is a good augury given the fact that Uganda now has almost 20 million children under 18 and it is good that we prepare to deal with this demographic within the justice sector. The issue of reform across the sector and its implications for children this was very exciting. The analysis and review of the work flow process led by JLOS was very challenging it had to have the individual institutions dealing with children in the justice process review, identify gaps and recommend changes which were then approved by the highest authority – the Chief Justice . This now becomes the basis for the costing of the child justice process leading to better planning and integrated way of working.

What are the upcoming challenges?

The challenge of children in remand, the process of developing diversion standards, bridging the gap between probation and courts by piloting innovations in Naguru Remand Home , the piloting of the victim and witness protection measures in four of the eight High Court circuits agreed to are very exciting and momentous changes that are in place . The joint training of CID/CFPU/DPP officers to address issues of VAC in a coordinated manner were some key milestones

The J4C coordinators and the catalyst action is increasingly being recognized as an important ingredient towards speedy disposal and preventing children from entering the formal justice sector.

Upcoming challenges include consolidation of the ongoing interventions, ensuring court practices become child friendly, separation of probation from welfare services to ensure qualitative rehabilitation and reintegration of children embracing technology and thinking out of the box to address systemic gaps than wait for lengthy administrative processes – why not have video links to review cases? Data management on children’s issues both civil and criminal issues (adoption, inheritance, gender issues), strengthening of family courts are very critical. Emerging issues like child online abuse need to be addressed

The links between informal and formal justice systems needs to be strengthened and need to formalize the Fit persons and Fit institutions aspects in the Child act are crucial.

Future Plans and parting thoughts

I am grateful that I had an opportunity to work with individuals and institutions who were very open and supportive and most importantly worked together with UNICEF as a team in making things better for children. With the commitment, ownership and vision provided so far by the JLOS sector I am confident that Uganda will continue to innovate and implement a very successful J4C programme.

Reprinting or republication of this article on websites or any other content platforms is authorized by prominently displaying the following sentence, including the hyperlink to the JLOS Website, at the beginning or end of the page: The Big Interview: Upclose with Sudha Murali is republished with permission of Uganda's Justice, Law and Order Sector."

Mrs. Birabwa-Nsubuga Christine is the National Coordinator of Justice Centres Uganda, a legal aid Project of the Justice Law and Order Sector (JLOS) that is hosted by the Judiciary. She explained the objectives of Justice Centres Uganda and the fully fledged national body set to be created to offer these free legal services to those who cannot afford them.

What clear plans are in place to provide legal aid services to the 84% of the Ugandan population who do not have access to these services?These 84% refer to those who cannot access lawyers because the lawyers are concentrated in Kampala or urban centres. I want to give a background to this. Legal aid is the provision of free legal services to those who cannot afford them. The Uganda Poverty Status Report 2014 suggested that 63.7% of people in Uganda are either living in abject poverty, or are vulnerable to poverty which means that they are barely making it and can tilt into abject poverty anytime.

Access to justice is important for any country and even if you cannot afford a lawyer, you still have to resolve the problem somewhat. Right now most legal aid service providers are non-state actors yet the responsibility lies with the State because the state collects taxes from the people and plans for the people.

According to the Human Rights Based Approach to development planning, When the State is planning it is important to have the most vulnerable and marginalised people such as the children, People with Disabilities (PWDs), women and increasingly the youth in mind. Resources must be channelled to the cause of those who are too poor to help themselves to ensure that there is a balanced economy and even the underprivileged can ably contribute to economic development .

Vision 2040 is planning to move Uganda to an upper middle income country in the next 25 years, we need to think about how we get there. Are people healthy, are they feeding well, can they negotiate a contract, are they aware of their rights and obligations as citizens, among others. Therefore thinking about healthcare, education and access to justice become critical.

People must access justice when they need it. If this elderly under privileged man from Alebtong has grown 7 acres of maize and a middle man from Kampala swindles it, and he has no money to hire a lawyer to go after swindler, there should be free legal services for him so as to enable him take care of his family. When he is swindled and is unable to access to justice, he is useless to Vision 2040. A lot of people are poor and they need these services.

Since 2006, the Justice Law and Order Sector (JLOS) which is charged with the administration of justice, together with her development Partners such as the Democratic Governance Facility(DGF), have been working on the establishment of a national body that will be charged with ensuring that people who cannot afford the services of a lawyer are provided free legal services. Since we have the police to arrest people, prisons to detain suspects, the DPP for prosecution, the Judiciary to try people, its only fair to have an institution that would provide legal support to the overwhelming number of people in Uganda who must either use or go through the administration of justice system.

There is currently no comprehensive law on legal aid service provision and the Sector has therefore, come up with a draft Legal Aid Policy that will guide the establishment of such body and how the body will work, how it will be governed, what kind of lawyers will be hired, the cooperation between civil society and the State in this regard, where the funding will come from among others. This Draft policy has been pending Cabinet approval for a while now.

How will you address the corruption in the courts where the poor lose out because they are out-competed by those who have money?I understand the issue of corruption in Uganda and how it pervades every aspect of life in Uganda. Transparency International is always ranking the judiciary as first or second in terms of corrupt institutions whether it is perceived or real. If an institution is established to support the poor through the justice system, then far be it that it should join the corruption queue. It would be defeatist for a legal aid service provider to take bribes from the poor! For the last six years, we have ensured Justice Centres Uganda is a corruption free zone. We have strict measures for our staff thus far. I cannot say I will keep corruption away but we have mechanisms in place to ensure that corruption does not flow into free legal services. Because if it does then the whole idea of free legal services will have died. That is why we are discouraging the idea of cost sharing. Pay the court fees, and then we pay this, pay our transport and we pay this… it will open up gaps for people to take bribes from the ordinary person.

In 2013 we conducted a client satisfaction survey, and fortunately everybody we interviewed, about 330 people said no body from Justice Centre Uganda had ever asked them for a bribe.

What will be the structure of the legal aid body once it is in place?The body will be a national Government body in the form of an Authority, Commission or Department. It is hoped that it will be semi-autonomous, to be able to enforce professional and quality standards in a swift manner. We are looking to mirror the DPP who prosecute alleged law breakers on behalf of the State, so that we have an institution that goes to court on behalf of the people whether is civil or criminal matters. The only qualification will be meeting the criteria for poor and or vulnerable.

The legal aid body will have Headquarters with regional offices to ensure that the services are brought to the lowest grass root levels. To this end a mixed model is proposed where the state body will be complemented by non state actors. It would be important to have some legal support at least up to the Sub county level with the use of properly trained professional paralegals.

It is proposed that the Board of Directors shall consist of people with different expertise; a representative from Uganda Law Society, The Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Civil society, academics, psycho social specialists among others. The Uganda Law Council will perform the regulatory function to ensure that the non state actors delivering legal aid meet the minimum standards. The Law Council will be restructured to be able to perform the additional functions and provide accreditation to all non State actors in legal aid service delivery.

The legal aid sub-sector has learned a lot from Legal Aid South Africa because they have the best system in Africa and are also very competitive globally. It is hoped that this learning will continue to ensure that Uganda too provides a professional good quality service to all who deserve it.

Funding and SustainabilityFunding will come primarily from the State and with a lot of goodwill from development partners there is certainty of continued support even when the national institution is established. The Policy proposes the creation of a Legal Aid Fund that will ensure ringfenced resources for legal aid. Furthermore, when the National body wins cases and gets awarded costs, these will be ploughed back in for sustainability. Further sustainability measures will include establishment of a self representation department which will utilize minimal resources, encouraging alternative dispute resolution which is cheaper and faster. Part of the strategy will be to create awareness to the masses which will help reduce the potential legal problems that occur majorly due to lack of information.

What will the body do about laws such as HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act which some people deem discriminatory? We are going to be covering all aspects of the law. If a person comes to us saying they feel they have been discriminated against by a certain aspect of the law, nothing will stop us from taking it on provided it has merit and the person is poor. Through the delivery of legal aid, we look at Article 21 of the Constitution which talks about equal protection of the law for all. We will address issues of discrimination if they are brought to us and not necessarily go about each law which is considered discriminatory. We are mainly attending to people and issues relating to the poor who cannot afford the services of a lawyer.

The land disputes have mainly affected the poor with many being dispossessed and being evicted from their land. What is the way forward?More than 70% of all court cases are land related and they are between the haves and the have-nots. Land is a hot commodity, investors want it, everyone wants a piece. Landlords and bibanja owners are in conflict due to the double interest on the same piece of land. Those who cannot afford are being deprived. In the North where land is not registered and customarily owned, widows who are not from the clan owned land are ordered to leave the land. The land cases are clogging the courts endlessly. But in most of these cases we are offering mediation because most of the people involved are related. There are few instances where strangers impose themselves on land. So here we are looking at mediation where we sit down with these people and help them talk. We have found this extremely useful and in fact the courts are now encouraging mediation not just in land matters but in all matters because of its potential to preserve relationships, end the conflict faster and cost less.

How will you ensure proper coordination with the rural communities spread out across Uganda?Justice Centres Uganda is a Project or forerunner for the legal aid body in the offing. JLOS will find the appropriate name and complete structure. We carried out a study called “A Digestive Report of Best Practices and and Prospects for the Future of National Legal Aid Service Delivery by the Government of Uganda” The study helps to guide; where the legal aid centres should be located, how much the lawyers and other staff should be paid to attract good quality professional staff, the cost of establishing one centre, where the poor are mostly found, how to spread out across the country among other issues, how much it will cost a year to deliver legal aid , so that the Government can plan properly.

So we have thought through the fact that this service must reach the grass roots and it is planned that working together with the districts and the different JLOS institutions, all the rural communities will access legal aid conveniently.

Law is an elitist issue and yet majority of the people you are targeting are ill-educated folks. How do you reconcile this?We are targeting the poor so we simplify all the laws and put them in easy to read material, translate them into local languages. For instance, we draw pictures of someone paying money and we put a cross indicating that no money is supposed to be paid here. We come down to their levels even when we are doing the outreaches. We speak to these people, listen to them and understand their plight. If we talk about legal aid and speak English, dressed in ways that send them away, then we will not achieve our goal. We have thought through this. When we are going to rural places, we dress appropriately. It is critical that our clientele appreciate our services so we work hard towards that. No one must ever get the impression that because we are giving for free and giving to the poor and vulnerable then anything goes. We must give our best, because we have chosen to provide this service.

Uganda’s population is growing very fast meaning that it may provide a challenge for this Project in terms of numbers. We are looking at a cascaded kind of spreading of services, to grow as resources permit. We have to plan if we are feeding into Vision 2040. Just as roads have a roadmap from how they were being used in 1960 when we had a population of about 6 million to today when we have a population of 35million. We have a plan to expand legal aid services because so many people need them but it is going to be difficult to satisfy the need instantly. We are going to look for partners and come up with creative ways of meeting that need.

What is your projection for the legal aid services in five years once they are in full gear?We envision a great contribution to Vision 2040, also a contribution to the economy of Uganda through empowering the marginalised and vulnerable. Five years from now with the policy and law in place, we envision happier people, less conflicts. We envision more access to legal information, a body that will deliver quality, a corruption free institution, and sufficiency of resources to serve the poor. We envision good standards, good customer care, a body that puts the poorest, vulnerable and or marginalised at the centre of legal aid service provision.

This interview was published in The Independent Magazine 04-10 September 2015 Issue.

On March 25 2015, Dr. Simone Knapp ended her tenure as head of Office at the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) here in Uganda. Before she left, Dr. Knapp gave www.jlos.go.ug an exclusive interview and spoke on a number of wide ranging issues in the sector and the role of ADC in the administration of justice and the rule of law in Uganda.

You have been at the helm of ADC support to the Justice, Law and Order Sector in the last four years. What key initiatives and programs has ADC supported in the Sector?

ADC’s support to JLOS started in 1997. Since 2002 Austria has supported JLOS through sector budget support. In addition to this - from what we hear - by JLOS very appreciated sector wide support, ADC has provided funding to JLOS for key initiatives: for example we supported several trainings for members of the JLOS Leadership Committee, Steering Committee and Technical Committee in Management for Development Results, Gender Responsive Budgeting and Leadership skills.

ADC also works closely with JLOS in rolling out mediation services to all courts and other dispute resolution bodies like the Uganda Human Rights Commission, the Law Council and it is key that also the Uganda Law Society and its members, the lawyers, are involved. Currently, and this is news now, we are working on a new project which will be ready later in the year, namely the development of a publication of JLOS success stories and achievements in order to better communicate and showcase the work of JLOS!

Let us talk about the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) project (supported by ADC) whose roll out was officially launched on March 18, 2015. How do you think this project will benefit the ordinary Ugandans?

Case-backlog is a big issue in Uganda. We hear about it constantly – legal proceedings take years! That is why the need for alternative ways of handling disputes became very obvious. This is for example called mediation. Mediation means for example: a client now does not need to go to through a lengthy and very expensive court procedure to get the father of her children pay for school fees. She can ask trained mediators to intervene. The mediator will talk to and hear both parties and assist them in finding a solution to their problem. This means, that the solutions are owned by both parties, and they are taken speedily. With this, the courts will be able to focus on fewer and really difficult cases.

The ADC Uganda Country Strategy (2010 – 2015) ends this year. What have been the key achievements registered under support to the sector during this term? Going forward, what programs in JLOS will ADC be supporting in the next 5 years.

Yes, the ADC Country Strategy for Uganda is coming to an end this year, because it was aligned to the National Development Plan I. We undertook a review of our past work, and together with the upcoming National Development Plan II we will define our new ADC Country Strategy (2016-2020). It is a bit early now to talk about details of our future program but from my experience in the last years I believe that a mix of sector budget support and additional project support is very useful. This complementary mix of instruments was also confirmed by the recent review.

How critical is the engagement of Development Partners and Non-state Actors in ensuring that the Justice, Law and Order sector continues to play its part in sustainably promoting pro-poor growth in Uganda?

This is indeed a very critical engagement. Civil Society in Uganda plays a vital role in monitoring Government’s performance, holding Government accountable and very often even in service delivery. For example, within the Justice, Law and Order sector, there are a number of Legal Aid Service Providers who provide legal aid and counseling services to people. I would not want to imagine a Uganda without the essential contribution by these Legal Aid Service Providers. Many of these organisations like FIDA, Paralegal Advisory Services, Muslim Centre for Justice and Law, Uganda Land Alliance, and others are supported by the Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) which is supported by Austria and seven other Development Partners.

What strategies can the sector employ in order to deepen justice reforms that are pro-people?

A number of such strategies are already ongoing like the attempt to improve service delivery and customer service as well as to introduce performance management in the sector. However, these strategies need to be strengthened and broadened so that the Ugandan women or men, particularly the poor and vulnerable, really feel a difference when accessing any of the services of the sector. It is key that the entrance point for clients of the justice system is a friendly and positive one and that these people are attended to when they have questions and need support, especially as clients are often intimidated when entering a court and when getting in contact with the quite formal systems in courts.

As your tenure comes to close as head of ADC in Uganda, what is your general assessment of sector performance over the last four years?

I like to see the glass half-full. While we are all aware that important challenges remain, important progress has been made in the past. Together with other Development Partners we undertake detailed assessments of the sector’s performance twice a year. We appreciate that human rights desks and committees have been established in the Police and Prisons and hope to see their number – and influence - grow. The physical presence of JLOS services in the districts has also increased, which makes accessing justice for people much easier, as they no longer have to travel so far in order to go to Police for example. What we also see is that the legal framework in Uganda is well developed and positive is that the development of policies and laws is often done in a very consultative process. I am also impressed that JLOS within a short period of time introduced several innovative ways of reducing case backlog like mediation, plea bargaining or the small claims procedures. Let’s hope the Ugandan women and men will soon benefit from these innovations.

What would you describe as the major challenges facing the sector today and how can these be overcome?

It is not a secret that corruption is a huge problem in Uganda and very rampant, especially amongst lower rank Police and Judicial Officers. This needs to end and the fight against corruption needs the clear commitment of the JLOS Leadership. I would hope the Government would one day take it up to reform the public service thoroughly.

Equally well know is the problem of human rights violations within the sector. These range from violations of the 48h rule by Police, to torture and mishandling. More training on human rights needs to be done, and individuals need to be held accountable, if they mistreat. By the way, what I was really hoping to see before my departure was the Legal Aid Policy and the Transitional Justice Policy adopted by Cabinet

In your opinion, what stands out as the key legacy of the sector-wide approach in the 16 years of JLOS’ existence?

JLOS is a best practice example indeed. Other countries look at Uganda and ask how you managed to do this. To me, the key legacy is the existence of JLOS houses, starting to be all over the country. Through this, all institutions come under one roof, and improve their cooperation, not only on paper and in meetings and discussions, but in real life issues and cases, when people come to approach them. This is what JLOS is about – bringing justice closer to the people!

Before leaving, let me thank all the good-hearted people in the sector for their very hard work, it was really a pleasure to work with you all and I wish JLOS all the best for the future!

The Justice, Law and Order Sector in partnership with with Justice Centers Uganda held the 1st National Legal Conference at Speke Resort Munyonyo on October 27-28 2011. On the sidelines of the conference, we had a chat with JUSTICE EDWIN MOGOMOTSI MOLAHLEHI - Deputy Chair of Legal Aid Board South Africa who was a conference guest speaker on the subject ’Implementing the Constitutional Right to Legal Aid – The South African experience’. Justice Molahlehi spoke to JLOS' Edgar Kuhimbisa and Diana Natukunda in this exclusive interview.

The Uganda Law Society is one of the 17 member institutions of the Justice, Law and Order Sector. The Uganda Law Society (ULS) is an association of lawyers charged with ensuring high levels of professionalism among lawyers in Uganda. The mission of ULS is to improve the professional standards of members of the Legal Profession, and to promote Human Rights, and the Rule of Law in Uganda by assisting the Government and the Judiciary in the Administration and practice of Law for the benefit of the people of Uganda.

On November 20 2013, www.jlos,go.ug sat down with the President Uganda Law Society, Ms. Ruth Ssebatandira and asked her about the various reforms being implemented by the society. Below is a transcript from the interview.

What is the overall mandate of the Uganda Law Society?

The main function is to contribute to the administration and practice of law for the benefit of the people of Uganda in pursuit of achieving and maintaining the rule of law and observance of human rights. These responsibilities include maintaining and improving the standards of conduct and learning of the legal profession in Uganda; representing, protecting and assisting members of the legal profession and protecting and assisting members of the public in matters touching ancillary or incidental to the law and assist the Government and the courts of law in all matters affecting the legislation and the administration practice of the law in Uganda.

What are some of the major success stories of the ULS?

The Legal Aid Project.

The Legal Aid Project (LAP) was established by the ULS in 1992 to provide quality legal and advisory support services to indigent and vulnerable people in Uganda and has become an example not only in Uganda but the East African region. The project was established upon the realization that, there was no systematic Legal Aid service provision in Uganda. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the majority of Ugandans lived below the poverty line and lacked access to Justice.

Currently the project is running 10 clinics in Kampala, Masindi, Gulu, Kaborole, Kabale, Jinja, Luzira, Arua, Soroti and Mbarara and employs over 60 qualified personnel who include, lawyers, paralegals and support staff. For the last five years, LAP has been in position to offer legal services to over 51,535 people across the country.

We appreciate the support from JLOS towards the set-up of the clinics of Mbarara, Soroti and Arua that were established last financial year 2012/2013, as well as support towards the ULS/LAP juvenile initiatives.

Other access to justice initiatives being done by the ULS are: a successful management of the Pro-bono scheme; a countrywide prison decongestion programme that attends to over 1000 prisoners every year; countrywide community sensitizations; development and dissemination of IEC materials ancillary to the law; paralegal training and mentoring- we have so far trained over 2000 paralegals countrywide and keep in constant touch with them; with support from the Canadian Bar Association we work to Strengthen Access to Justice in East Africa; juvenile interventions through our decongestion programmes and other JLOS interventions like special juvenile court sessions, support to the Justice For Children project where we sit on the Steering Committee, to mention but a few.

Management of the Pro-bono Scheme

With the support of the Democratic Governance Facility and in partnership with the Law Council, the Uganda Law Society Legal Aid Project has, for the last 5years, been managing a Probono project. Currently we have over 1000 lawyers registered in the Probono Scheme and are providing free legal services- using the Legal Aid Project as a catchment base for the cases. This would not have been possible without the support of the JLOS institutions especially court and prisons.

A successful professional development programme

For the last 10 years, JLOS has supported ULS technically and financially to inculcate the need to gain more knowledge on topical and emerging legal issues as well as reduce incidences of professional mal-practice in ULS’ Professional/CLE programmes. Although there is tagged to members’ renewal of their Practicing Certificates, members have appreciated the need to increase their knowledge and expertise, now acquire even more than the stipulated 20 CLE hours.

With support from the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and more recently JLOS, ULS established and annually commemorates an Annual Rule of Law day that has metamorphosed into a week-long commemoration of Rule of Law week. During this commemoration, the membership of the ULS and key stakeholders deliberate on topical Rule of Law issues like transparency, accountability and integrity and educate the general public on these issues. This week-long event generates healthy debates and provides action items for ULS to follow up on.

The ULS has distinguished itself nationally and internationally as the National Bar- we have a membership up in the numbers of more than 1500 members and growing. We hold Annual and Extra-Ordinary General meetings that bring together over 1000 members and we take collective decisions under the guidance of the elected President, Executive Council and a modern Secretariat.

How has the ULS performed in regard access to Justice and the administration of the rule of law?

The ULS has performed well with regard to access to justice and administration of the rule of law as highlighted above. In addition, the ULS, using its vast resource of members acts as a check and balance through its Press Statements and position papers as and when the need arises. ULS also provides input to Bills before and after they are presented to Parliament to ensure that they are within the limitations of the Constitution and regional and international standards.

Your overall take on ULS performance within the context of the Justice, Law and Order Sector?

JLOS has enabled ULS to appreciate its potential according to its mandate by involving ULS in its activities at Steering, Technical and Working Group levels. This has propelled ULS to greater heights as it continues to contribute to the JLOS mandate.

Further, as the only non-state actor in JLOS, ULS is able to carry out activities on its own and on JLOS’ behalf with an independent approach for example trying civilians in the Court Martial and Prisoners’ pending Minster’s Order.

ULS brings to JLOS its core competencies and contributes at all levels for instance in deepening reforms for a pro-people justice system – ULS has actively participated in the drafting, lobbying ad advocacy for a National Legal Aid Policy that is currently at Cabinet level.

The driving theme for the JLOS SIP III is “deepening reforms for a pro-people justice system”. What are some of the pro-people/pro-poor strategies the ULS has put in place or plans to put in place in execution of its mandate?

The ULS has for the past 22 years run the Legal Aid Project (LAP) currently operating in 10 clinics in Kampala, Masindi, Gulu, Kaborole, Kabale, Jinja, Luzira, Arua, Soroti and Mbarara

Specific initiatives undertaken include: Lobbying and advocating for pro-poor policies like the National Legal Aid Policy and amendment to the Children Act;a successful Probono scheme; a countrywide prison decongestion programme; countrywide community sensitizations; development and dissemination of IEC materials ancillary to the law; paralegal training and mentoring; with support from the Canadian Bar Association we work to strengthen Access to Justice in East Africa; juvenile interventions through our decongestion programmes and other JLOS interventions like special juvenile court sessions, support to the Justice For Children project where we sit on the Steering Committee, to mention but a few.

After 12 years in existence, what do you think is the legacy of the sector-wide approach?

JLOS has put Uganda and more specifically actors in the Justice, Law and Order Sector in a leading role and in fuller control of the Sector’s Development programmes thus making them more effective and sustainable.

JLOS has led the transition from donor-led, project dominated development assistance to the formulation and implementation of genuine national strategies (like the District Chain-linked Committees and their roles and activities) with active participation of state and non-state actors.

The Sector wide approach has enhanced coordination and collaboration amongst sector institutions in terms of information sharing with a common goal of deepening reforms for a pro-people justice system and strengthened donor coordination and cooperation, which makes the donors stronger while acting as a consortium;

What are some of the pressing challenges the ULS and the Justice, Law and Order Sector face and how can these be overcome?

Delayed release of funding into the Sector and its institutions which delays programme implementation; Real programme ownership and extraction of tangible results takes time to be realized and the need to harmonize donor procurement procedures.